Archive for month: December, 2014

Recently I wanted to configure a wireless printer in a university’s dorms room, which only have wired network. In order to do this change “stealthy”, I needed to use the smallest possible router with USB connection.

TP-Link WR703N is a small router being sold in China, and is capable of OpenWRT firmware. Beware: TL-WR702N is the version being sold globally, but isn’t OpenWRT capable. WR703N specs are:

Atheros AR7240 CPU (400Mhz)

Atheros AR9331 Chipset (integrated wireless)

802.11 b/g/n 150Mbps

4 MB flash memory, 32 MB RAM

USB 2.0 port

Powered via micro-USB socket

Tiny form factor: 5.7cm x 5.7cm x 1.8cm

Specifications and size makes it a great solution for travels also. This router can be found in eBay at sub-$30 price range, shipped. There are some hardware versions, and you should hope to get a compatible version with OpenWRT, since the default firmware is in Chinese. Hardware version is written at the bottom of the router, and I got v1.6. Connecting to the web interface, I could see more details regarding it – FW build 130321, original FW rel. 37153n. According this model’s OpenWRT page, version is supported for AA, which is the stable version of the firmware.

Starting the process is simple, connect to the router using Ethernet cable, go to 192.168.1.1 in your browser (username: admin, password: admin). Click on last +, and then 3rd bulletin. You should see something similar to this screen:

Download and use the firmware in this page: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr703n